CFS Daily Hot Reads: Saturday, March 9, 2013

Bill O’Brien warns his players how social media can affect their draft stock. Are they listening? (Nati Harnik/AP)

Penn State’s Bill O’Brien doesn’t have a Twitter account, and probably never will. After all, he’s from the Bill Belichick school, where information is kept “down home.” But he’s not unrealistic enough to expect his players to do the same. O’Brien can give his players a first-hand impression of how social media can affect their draft status, but there’s work to be done. Several scouts at the combine apparently warned Nittany Lion linebacker Gerald Hodges about conducting himself better on social media sites, and cornerback Stephon Morris was told about the importance of keeping his account professional. Morris went on a Twitter rant back in January,ripping the players who transferred once the NCAA sanctions were announced. Hopefully, they’ll be receptive. “Some of the guys still don’t get it even after that,” one AFC scout said. “They’ll keep tweeting and posting and teams are losing interest in the player. Sometimes, if it gets really bad, the player drops off or might be taken off the draft board.”

Bo Pelini needed all of 90 seconds to sum up his feelings about Nebraska’s first scrimmage of the spring. “What I watched was a mentally weak football team,” Pelini said after Saturday’s practice. “A bad football team.” Apparently, the Huskers were especially woeful on defense. “You could have put a grade-school offense out there against our defense and they would have done well. It’s mental weakness.”

Pat Fitzgerald believes the coaching truism – you never know what it’s like until you sit in the big chair. “Looking back on it now, I was awful,” Fitzgerald said of his early years as a head coach. “I just don’t think I did a very good job as a leader articulating the vision. I was trying to do too much. You have to have the ability to lead people to be a great coach.” For more, check out Jeremy Fowler’s feature on Northwestern’s head coach.

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